Women’s Wear Daily is considered by some as the “bible of fashion.” And while I don’t actually feel God/Jehovah/Krishna/Muhammed/Madonna (yes, I mean Ciccone) has spoken here, we are still quite thrilled to see Greenloop and owner Aysia Wright be lauded by this industry tome as the “Zappos of sustainable brands.”

Being awarded the Best Online Shop by Treehugger’s Best In Green Awards and getting recognized by WWD all at once has made for quite a (I’m gonna stick with the religious angle here) blessing. Check out the article by Jennifer Ernst Beaudry here…

Aysia Wright was a lawyer and environmental activist in the spring of 2004, when she decided that fashion retail would be her next challenge. “I wanted to get out of practicing law, and I felt that fashion is so pervasive it can serve as a catalyst, and it was a really good platform for an environmental message,” she said. In September of that year, Wright founded her 900-sq.-ft. Portland, Ore., eco-boutique, Greenloop, and launched a Website soon after. Both carry a mix of clothing and footwear. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy to grow her niche — with green retail not as recognizable or widespread as it is today, and with fewer brands to choose from. But working in a field she’s so passionate about has its upside. “It was a huge challenge,” Wright said, “but it’s fun. And within the design community, [green brands] are a nice group of people to work for and advocate for.”

THE RIGHT MIX
To be considered for Greenloop, Wright said, brands have to fill out a detailed questionnaire about where they manufacture, what textiles they use, where they source and more. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis — but no matter how good the green pedigree is, she said, the shoes have to be durable and trend-right. If not, Wright explained, “[the shoes] are inherently unsustainable because no one will wear them and they won’t last.” Greenloop stocks shoes from Beyond Skin, Melissa Shoes, Toms, Simple, Terra Plana, Autonomie Project and Charmoné. Prices range from $30 to $350, and shoes, available for men and women, account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the store’s business, which registers slightly less than $1 million a year. Variety, Wright said, is key: “There’s a little something for everyone.”

Lancelot Clark is the sixth generation of the famed Quaker shoe dynasty Clarks. Back in the sixties, Lance conceptualized the iconic Wallabee moccassin, still worn today by everyone from preppy Connecticut housewives to members of the infamous Wu-Tang Clan. After some stressful years running the family’s international brand, Lance took over Terra Plana in the early 1990′s. Along with his son Galahad, Lance has transformed Terra Plana into one of the most stylish and best-selling brands in the sustainable shoe industry.

Terra Plana utilizes eco-conscious and innovative materials such as chrome-free and vegetable tanned leathers, biodegradable soling, recycled seat belts and jeans, reclaimed rubber, and e-leather, a unique blend of leather and textile fibers ‘re-woven’ and finished in a way that makes it practically indistinguishable from fine quality leather. Lance and Galahad are both huge proponents of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In addition to durability and biodegradability, they address reparability, lightness, and anatomic design.”Terra Plana regularly re-evaluates what we can do to minimize waste and toxin use, and maximize product use and love.”

In our ongoing series, Green Your Closet 2008, we’ve explored how to lessen the environmental impact of your wardrobe by recycling clothing, laundering your garments properly, and finding affordable eco fashion. In this installment, we’re gonna show you how you can save your soles and accept a cobbler as your personal friend and savior. Yes, it is nearly a religious experience to resurrect your favorite pair of McCartneys, Miu Mius, or Merrells at your local shoe repair shop. You can transform shoes so beaten down by years of abuse they could be lost to a landfill, into fresh, clean kicks ready for another three years of blissful wear. Heavenly, I tell you.

So, where to begin? Your closet, of course. Do you any boots that could use a resoling or side zippers that need to be replaced? Maybe a strap has popped out of the sole of your favorite sandals and needs to be reanchored, or a dingy pair of Adidas needs a fresh pair of shoelaces to make them wearable again. Be aware that some fine, service-oriented companies like Mohop, may repair them for you. If you think your shoes fall into the Mom-And-Pop, luxury, or handmade categories, check their website to see if they’ll do the repairs in-house. Otherwise, you’ll need to find a quality cobbler near you. Use the Shoe Service Institute of America’s shoe repair shop locator. Just enter your zipcode and SSIA will serve you up a list of experienced solesavers in your neck of the woods.

It’s true there’s no more virtuous choice, environmentally-speaking, than making good with what you’ve already got. The second best option is to get high quality shoes on consignment. Consignment shops like Couture USA and Rodeo Drive Resale offer lightly used, designer goods at a fraction of the price. Jimmy Choo, here we come! Thankfully, there’s more and more high-quality sustainable shoe manufacturers coming online each season. Green Toe by Simple, Terra Plana, and Charmone are all companies dedicated to seeking out the most sustainable materials and manufacturing methods possible, while still managing to serve up up a healthy dose of style. Now if you only buy used or eco fabulous shoes from now on, be kind to them, and repair them for years to come, you may just make it into heaven after all for being so good!

Note how attending Catholic school for only one year in pre-school has affected my take on the eco fashion world. Curious. I could probably use a few Hail Manolos, I mean, Marys. (Darn it.)

In the classicly edgy words of Mikey Koffman, Owner of eco fashion PR firm The Gallery Los Angeles, “Go green or go home.” With models like these, I will not be going home. The Gallery pulled off it’s second eco-driven show for LA Fashion Week and proved to the international fashion world once again that sustainable fashion rocks.

Housed in the hubbub of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Culver City, The Green Initiative Humanitarian Fashion Show was more than a mouthful of feel good words. Lady Muse by Mathilde, lilikoi by Barbara Boswell, M The Movement, Rene Geneva, Andira Rain Tees and Vintage China seamlessly blended style, sustainability, and social awareness on the runway. Each designer opened with a dance performance from a different culture, from Breaking to Ballet to Traditional Chinese Ribbon Dance…nice touch. M The Movement repped for men’s eco fashion in a big way. He dressed his opening b-boys as well as his Adonis-like male models in bamboo, soy, organic cotton, and the hot new addition to the world of sustainable fabrics: charcoal. (Apparently bamboo charcoal can be embedded in various fabrics as an odor-absorbing biodegradable blending material.)

Lady Muse kept her designs very French and very recycled, or “rescued” as she called them in her adorable accent. All of the materials used for Mathilde’s pieces were surplus fabrics, including gorgeous metallic brocade, from which she constructed her Victorian era-inspired jackets. lilikoi used hemp silk, bamboo, linen and organic cotton for her wrap dresses mixed with casual tees and sexy pencil skirts.

Technically Terra Plana means flat land, but you’ll be hardpressed to find much flatness with this shoe manufacturing anomaly. Inspired by a deep desire for longterm ecological survival, Terra Plana publishes the life cycle assessment for every pair of shoes they produce. They design their shoes with reparability, lightness (to reduce shipping impact), anatomic design, and durability in mind. According to Terra Plana, they “minimize waste and toxin use and maximize product use and love.” They produce their line using chrome-free and vegetable tanned leathers, recycled materials of all sorts (from rubber to old quilts and parachutes), and pure latex soling materials.

Terra Plana has also debuted a more eco-conscious leather product called E-leather. It’s a ‘re-woven’ blend of leather and textile fibers practically indistinguishable from good quality leather. E-Leather is produced with closed loop water usage and best practice pollution prevention methods. These people clearly care about crafting beautiful fashion statements using only the most modern and sustainable methods possible.

And how do they look? So, so hot! Whether you’re in Milano, Madrid, or the Mid-West these unique sneaks and heels will be turning heads. Priced from $50-300, a pair of Terra Plana’s is a worthwhile investment in a company that’s setting the bar for eco-conscious manufacturing, as well as your wardrobe.